Big Brother Training 101

I have been trying to get Meer used to the idea of having a new baby around the house… I put a teddy bear in a baby carrier sling and walked around the house... The first couple times Meer was quite disturbed by it and would instruct me to take the teddy bear out, and put Meer inside instead!! So I did, and lugged Meer around in a back breaking sling pretending he was my “tiny little baby straight from the hospital”! We have a rule too – “Baby’s don’t talk.” So if he is playing baby – he can’t use any words. That makes the game last only so long, before our Big Boy is back and eager to show us how tall he is! We pretend we are all shocked that a baby could grow up so fast, and everyone has a good laugh.

I have been looking for a “brown” baby doll to use instead of a fuzzy teddy bear, but was unsuccessful until last week, when I found a brown baby doll at a grocery store across town. The quality isn’t there (of course!!), but for the $20 it cost, I think it is still well worth it, if only to get Meer desensitized to the look of a little baby around the house. It’s kind of a cute doll too – it has a squishy body, and cries if it doesn’t have a bottle or pacifier in it's mouth.

Now when Meer is playing, or is engrossed in some activity, we make the baby cry and ask Meer to help us make the baby stop crying. Meer will stop what he is doing right away to come over and instruct me that the baby needs milk, and will push the bottle right into the baby’s mouth and hold it there, and say, “Stop crying baby... it’s OK.” It is SO cute!! Originally the baby used to make a sucking sound, and the bottle would move up and down a bit, but with Meer’s help to feed her, it now just makes a mechanical groaning noise and the bottle doesn’t move one bit. I went back to the grocery store and bought another one – so we have a spare for when this one breaks... which seems inevitable and in our near future!!

About 5 days into the experiment Meer now isn’t possessive of me when the baby is around. He has figured out that the baby is just more work for someone, and this morning even suggested that I hold the baby while it drinks it’s milk instead of putting in it’s bed.

Naturally we applaud him like crazy for being caring towards the doll, and he is really relishing all the praise he gets for being “such a good big brother”!! Here is a picture of Meer the first time he gave the baby doll it's bottle...